What happened
Shares of eBay Inc. (EBAY 1.25%) fell 5.6% on Thursday after the online marketplace specialist announced solid first-quarter 2018 results but followed with disappointing guidance.
eBay's quarterly revenue grew 12% year over year to $2.58 billion, which translated to adjusted net income of $548 million, or $0.53 per share, up from $0.49 per share in the year-ago period. Both the top and bottom lines were essentially in line with eBay's previous guidance.
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So what
eBay also revealed that active buyers across its platforms increased a modest 4% year over year to 171 million. And thanks to the continued rollout of new user experiences, gross merchandise volume (GMV) and revenue from its marketplace segment each climbed a solid 7% at constant currency, to $22.5 billion and $2.1 billion, respectively.
Revenue from eBay's StubHub ticket exchange subsidiary also jumped 9%, to $232 million, driven by strong Super Bowl ticket sales and international growth. And revenue in the classifieds segment rose 10% at constant currencies, to $246 million.
CEO Devin Wenig stated that the company "drove good growth" to start the year, while at the same time making progress in its "multiyear effort to transform our customer experience and sharpen the eBay brand."
Now what
For the second quarter, however, eBay told investors to expect revenue of between $2.64 billion and $2.68 billion (for currency-neutral growth of 6% to 8%), and adjusted earnings per share of $0.50 to $0.52. By comparison, most analysts were looking for earnings near the high end of that range on revenue of $2.69 billion.
That said, eBay did reaffirm its full-year guidance, which calls for revenue of between $10.9 billion and $11.1 billion, and adjusted earnings per share of $2.25 to $2.30. But here again, Wall Street was already modeling earnings of $2.29 per share -- indicating many had hoped that eBay would boost its bottom-line outlook as its business transformation begins to take hold.
